![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
I will not read your novel
Feb. 14th, 2008 | 05:21 pm
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
a meditation upon Valentine's Day
Feb. 14th, 2008 | 06:33 pm
"You've got no date on Valentine's Day!" someone told me today (meaning well, I'm sure). "Doesn't that upset you?"
I'd never really thought about it before. How does it make me feel?
Well...relieved, mostly.
This isn't a rant.* I've never been quite convinced by the people who get unhinged at the mention of Valentine's Day, arguing that it ought to be Singles' Appreciation Day, or it's wholly a creation of a sinister cartel of faceless international flower merchants.** I suspect if they were really at peace with themselves, they would merely shrug their shoulders at the whole affair and go about their business, rather than ranting about it. A long term Significant Other who isn't crazy, vengeful, or demanding is, I am sure, probably a positive thing. Why not celebrate it?
But.
All day long I've watched people (mostly men) scramble. Gotta get the card. Gotta get the flowers. $50 for a bundle of dead plants? Gotta make the dinner reservations. Gotta use some vacation time to get to dinner on time. Gotta get the appropriate gift. Stress! Panic! Mayhem! Expense!
You know how in grade school you'd sometimes have unpleasant mandatory activities that the teachers thought should be fun? Some onerous thing you didn't want to do, but you'd have to, if you didn't want to get into trouble? Like a mandatory extracurricular activity, or a school-wide play, or the entire class had to go clean the yards of cantankerous old people? And then, for some blessed reason, you had an unimpeachable excuse to get out of it? You could sit back and goof off while the rest of the class toiled with rakes to the imprecations of a irritated retiree.
Wasn't that just the greatest feeling ever?
That's exactly how I feel about having no date on Valentine's Day.
-JM
*Which is odd, I know, on a blog called the Book of Screed.
**Though there is some truth to that. I'm sure that Big Flower was behind at least a few wars.
I'd never really thought about it before. How does it make me feel?
Well...relieved, mostly.
This isn't a rant.* I've never been quite convinced by the people who get unhinged at the mention of Valentine's Day, arguing that it ought to be Singles' Appreciation Day, or it's wholly a creation of a sinister cartel of faceless international flower merchants.** I suspect if they were really at peace with themselves, they would merely shrug their shoulders at the whole affair and go about their business, rather than ranting about it. A long term Significant Other who isn't crazy, vengeful, or demanding is, I am sure, probably a positive thing. Why not celebrate it?
But.
All day long I've watched people (mostly men) scramble. Gotta get the card. Gotta get the flowers. $50 for a bundle of dead plants? Gotta make the dinner reservations. Gotta use some vacation time to get to dinner on time. Gotta get the appropriate gift. Stress! Panic! Mayhem! Expense!
You know how in grade school you'd sometimes have unpleasant mandatory activities that the teachers thought should be fun? Some onerous thing you didn't want to do, but you'd have to, if you didn't want to get into trouble? Like a mandatory extracurricular activity, or a school-wide play, or the entire class had to go clean the yards of cantankerous old people? And then, for some blessed reason, you had an unimpeachable excuse to get out of it? You could sit back and goof off while the rest of the class toiled with rakes to the imprecations of a irritated retiree.
Wasn't that just the greatest feeling ever?
That's exactly how I feel about having no date on Valentine's Day.
-JM
*Which is odd, I know, on a blog called the Book of Screed.
**Though there is some truth to that. I'm sure that Big Flower was behind at least a few wars.